Page 54 of Crucified By the Dark
They sat quietly for a short time until he got up the nerve to ask. “What is Wellness Springs?”
Morry’s eyes dropped to their joined hands. “Let’s just say that I understand all those who come through this place because I’ve had to battle my own demons.”
That information only made her seem stronger. She was a woman who fought for everything in a world that wanted to beat her down because she was a woman, and here she was, still standing.
“I love you,” he blurted out, then held his breath.
Morry slowly looked up from their hands and stared into his eyes. He couldn’t help feeling like he was being swept away by her stormy eyes. He cleared his throat.
“You don’t have to say it back or anything. I just…I needed you to know.”
Morry opened her mouth when the door burst open with a bang. Judd was standing there, breathing hard, while blood poured from a cut on his cheek. “We’re under attack. The Desert Devils had no interest in creating an alliance. They thought you were coming with me and had set a trap. Three are dead, one is wounded, and they are hot on our heels like a swarm of wasps. I’m not sure how many of us made it out alive.”
Morry burst from the table and grabbed her cell off her desk. “Get the men ready and protect the gates. No one takes our fucking home,” she growled.
“What’s going on,” her father asked as she ran to the truck he was sitting in.
“Go into my office and stay there. If need be, there’s a safe room in the closet. Fucking use it. If not for me, then for Kyle. You’re my only hope for keeping Kyle in our lives, and you can’t be seen in this fight.” She could tell by the look on his face he was going to argue. White shirt or not, he was a soldier first and an officer second. “Dad. Please. Kyle can’t be cut out of our lives. Even if something happened to me, he still needs you. He deserves to know the truth about me one day.”
“All right, stop right there, soldier. You’re not dying today, I won’t allow it. I’ll go hide out in the fucking closet. God, I hate this shirt some days.”
She smirked as he hopped out and ran into the building. Morry turned to Jeremy, already standing by her side with a gun in his hand. “Come with me.”
They jogged over to Lady Luck, and she pulled open the back door to grab a couple more guns, handing them over to Jeremy. “Hopefully, we won’t need to use these.”
“What’s the plan,” he asked as he ran around the Hummer and jumped in, the door closing with a bang as the first sound of gunfire rang out.
“Well, I’m hoping that Lady here will be able to beat them back before they get through the gate, but it will depend on how many they have. No matter what, there are gonna be a lot of graves to dig later.”
“As long as it’s their graves and not our people, I don’t care,” Jeremy said.
She used to have that same outlook, but once she’d killed, it hadn’t taken long to realize that the person you were forced to shoot was just like you. They thought they were fighting the good fight and on the right side. Whether that was right or wrong didn’t matter when you were staring into someone’s eyes as the life drained from their body. They had a family and people who loved them, and for every person who cheered that they were dead, someone shed tears.
She punched the gas, and the powerful vehicle revved and shot forward. “Lady Luck, arm weapons.”
A soft whirring started as the gears that controlled the guns and small missiles locked into ready mode. “Battle system ready.”
“Battle systems? What the fuck?” Jeremy said as they closed in on the gate.
“Open gate,” she ordered. She’d strategically attached the Hummer to everything. There wasn’t a single thing on the base that she couldn’t control from the Hummer if need be. It was only for emergencies, like now.
“Holy fuck,” Jeremy mumbled as they shot through the gate that was barely open enough for them to fit. “I think you missed your calling as a race car driver. Fuck me,” Jeremy said, making her smirk.
“Close gate.” She checked the rear-view mirror, and sure enough, the gates were closed. The gunfire they’d heard earlier came into view as they crested the first sandy rise. A couple dozen of their men were backed into one of the small rock faces they called Lookout Point. They were pinned behind large boulders as a mass of bikers and dune buggies raced around.
“Did we just drive into a fucking movie? It looks like a scene fromMad Maxout here.”
He wasn’t wrong. It was mass chaos as the gunfight continued, and the lines of bikes and ORVs came down the road. The men were an issue, but the trucks set up with heavy artillery on the back were the bigger problem.
The sight of those trucks and Jeeps tried to stir old memories, and she could hear the sound of the sand hitting the metal as the engines revved and gunfire filled the air.
She shook her head and tightened her hands on the wheel. “You’re gonna want to put on your seatbelt,” she said as she stopped the Hummer on the high rise that gave her a perfect vantage point.
“Why am I equal parts terrified and fucking excited?”
“Because you’ve never seen the carnage before outside of video games,” she said softly. “Lady Luck, lock on to artillery trucks.”
“Locked,” the Hummer said. No matter how many times she heard the robotic, emotionless voice say it was ready to kill, it always gave her chills, and not the good kind.
